While it is common to talk about high-achieving Asian Americans (à la the “model minority” myth) or to debate the merits of race-conscious admissions policies, the Harvard lawsuit has the following two novelties:

Secondly, it’s the first time that disgruntled Asian American applicants were specifically recruited to serve as plaintiffs (n.b., in the previous Fisher, Grutter, Gratz, and Bakke Supreme Court affirmative action cases, the featured plaintiffs were white and usually female). That members of the Asian American community were specifically targeted to serve as new poster children for purported “victims” of affirmative action can be readily seen by the following website (Harvardnotfair.org) that the president of the anti-affirmative action group suing Harvard (Edward Blum of Students for Fair Admissions) created in 2014.

What’s my response to all of this?

I must begin by acknowledging the ways I’m a stakeholder in these debates — as a fellow Asian American, parent of two (likely) college-bound kids, graduate of two elite private institutions (disclaimer: Harvard is one of them), and U.S. citizen who cares about the fair provision of quality educational opportunities for all.

Still, as a professional educator and ethicist since 2003, I have seen firsthand how increases in racial-ethnic diversity on campuses translates directly into enhanced learning outcomes for all. To use a few examples drawn from my own experiences, there’s simply no substitute for having actual Puerto Rican students talk about the complexities of U.S. imperialism and colonialism, African American and Korean American students providing firsthand accounts of their communities’ responses to the 1992 LA riots, or students of either Cuban or Vietnamese heritage speaking of their family’s history of migration, wartime trauma, and beginnings in the U.S. as asylum-seekers or refugees.

So understood, I–together with so many others–have grown weary of the ways in which the “model minority” myth in general and current debates about affirmative action in particular involve the positioning of Asian Americans as a wedge against our African American and Latinx peers.

No problem. I liked how you discussed Affirmative Action issues for Asian Students at Harvard University. It’s not a surprise that Harvard University are doing that with admissions policies with Asians, because I was trying to apply for a supportive academic appointment at Harvard University, I’m African American and didn’t hire me. Don’t feel bad.

As you probably know then, there are so many factors that selection committees must consider for admissions to schools or employment for jobs that it’s nearly impossible to isolate one’s race as THE defining factor that made the difference…

“When California banned affirmative action in college admissions and relied solely on standardized test scores and grades as the definition of “qualified,” black and Latino enrollments plummeted. Whites, however, were not the beneficiaries of this “merit-based” system. Instead, Asian enrollments soared and with that came white resentment at both “the hordes of Asians” at places like the University of California, Los Angeles, and an admissions process that stressed grades over other criteria.”
…
“Although you will never hear this from Mr. Sessions, men are the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action in college admissions: Their combination of test scores, grades and achievements is simply no match for that of women, whose academic profiles are much stronger. Yet to provide some semblance of gender balance on campuses, admissions directors have to dig down deep into the applicant pool to cobble together enough males to form an incoming class.”

Carol – indeed; thanks for pulling out that choice passage from that piece I linked to (“the politics of white resentment.”) Frankly the topic is huge and even a discussion of the UC’s + Harvard still keeps the focus on elite or highly-selective institutions when frankly we collectively should be talking about access to quality higher education across the board, not just at, say, top 50 schools.

Thank you so much for this article, Grace. I must admit that as an African American, when I heard of this issue recently in the Bay Area re Chinese support of anti-affirmative action, my emotions and thoughts (intertwined) were doing overtime. I felt angry, and thought, “Not again!” I felt guilt because there is a negative past history between some Asian groups (at least in California) and African Americans, with both sides to blame for the trouble. I felt dispirited because until we all see the intersections of racism, understand the histories as presenting through a different process, yet yielding the same results, we will forever remain non-white people who have been subject to white supremacy. We may have to take our turn, in history, but this will happen.
Again, much gratitude. I learned something reading this article. I am open, also, to how you must struggle within yourself, perhaps being torn because you can view different sides of the coin.

Rev. Terry de Grace-Morris: I can appreciate all of the emotions/thoughts you’ve been feeling. This is the twisted brilliance of using Asian Americans as a “wedge” — people of color then bicker/fight amongst themselves, leaving the racial hierarchy firmly intact with whites on top! While I’m not familiar with the particular history of struggle you name in the Bay Area, I do know that such tensions/misunderstanding/conflicts are real. Yes, there are indeed pockets of Asian Americans who DO resent affirmative action; I myself take comfort in knowing that they are the statistical minority. Thanks for writing!